What I read and listened to this week

“I think that… I hope that people get to a point where we can stop being so stingy, with resources, whether it be information or whatever. It’s like, you gotta share that, nobody gives a fuck. Nobody cares if you’ve retained all this knowledge. What’s this utility if it’s not helping someone?” - Earl Sweatshirt in this YouTube video interview before he did this whole talk in front of people with his mom. Incredibly vulnerable to get on stage like that.

“Let Them Eat Tech” by Lily Geismer for Dissent Magazine. Really great read, in-depth on how the “just learn to code” argument doesn’t easily apply to people especially those from rural communities. Solutions are never easy, they’re nuanced.

I saw Uncut Gems in the middle of December (letterboxd entry), I thought it was a funny tragedy. This article inspired me to place a hold on Portnoy’s Complaint from my library.

Queens rapper Flee and StupidXool’s XOOL SUMMER from August 2019… heat. On “MOBB DEEP” Flee sings “she gon fuck me with no de-lay” and it’s beautiful.

Chipmunk Soul walkthrough by Julian Brimmers, which I only mention because Just Blaze talks about how the beat for “Oh Boy” was originally meant for Jay-Z, and Kanye wanted the beat for “Izzo (H.O.V.A)” to go to Dipset, and I can’t stop thinking about how crazy that is.

This article has a cringy title and the author sometimes gets distracted on attacking writers for The Atlantic or calling people edgelords, but the article has good points about why people feel compelled to share on social media. I especially liked this blurb:

Now, opinions are everywhere, and we wear them like luxury brands, expressing not what we think but who we are. Twitter — most of all — nurtures our instinct to treat opinion as a carefully calibrated social gambit, a constellation of signifiers, a fashion item designed to please a certain audience or communicate our affiliation with it. We’ve regressed. Not just to adolescent pretense, but back further, to the juvenile expectation of being celebrated for having opinions at all.

Remember when Future made “Drunk in Love” before Beyoncé did? You should always remember. Here it is.

Phony Ppl are performing for free in NYC next month, but unfortunately it’s the night of the Super Bowl?? You know I can’t choose between a really good live show and Super Bowl LIV in Miami. Phony Ppl are really good though.

thanks for reading, I’ll end this with a video I can’t stop replaying.